KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia has extended for another year its contract with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity for a deep-sea search in the southern Indian Ocean for wreckage of a Malaysia Airlines flight that disappeared 12 years ago.
The Cabinet on Friday approved the extension of a “no-find, no-fee” agreement with Ocean Infinity until June 30 next year, Transport Minister Anthony Loke said Monday.
“This decision is a manifestation of the government’s continuous and unwavering commitment to provide a closure for the next of kin of the passengers aboard flight MH370,” he said in a statement.
The extension enables Ocean Infinity to complete the remaining 7,428.54-square-kilometer (2,868-square-mile) search area, after temporarily redeploying its primary search assets to fulfill other commercial contracts, he said.
The Boeing 777 plane vanished from radar shortly after taking off on March 8, 2014, carrying 239 people, mostly Chinese nationals, on a flight from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur, to Beijing. Satellite data showed the plane turned from its flight path and headed south to the far-southern Indian Ocean, where it is believed to have crashed.
An expensive multinational search failed to turn up any clues to its location, although debris washed ashore on the East African coast and Indian Ocean islands. A private search in 2018 by Ocean Infinity also found nothing.
Malaysia gave the nod last year to Ocean Infinity to renew the search for Flight 370 at a new 15,000-square-kilometer (5,800-square-mile) site in the southern Indian Ocean. Ocean Infinity, which has headquarters both in the U.S. and Britain, will be paid $70 million only if wreckage is discovered.
Loke said Ocean Infinity vessels are expected to be redeployed to the MH370 mission between November and April next year, when calmer sea offers the safest and most effective window for the underwater operations.